"A veteran pastry chef and finalist on the most recent season of the Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship, Clément Le Déoré is showcasing his skills at Desserts by Clément, a Garnet Avenue cafe in Pacific Beach that opened at the end of 2023. Originally from Brittany, he began baking professionally at 15 and trained and worked internationally—from Corsica to Australia—before moving to San Diego seven years ago; after four years with local chain Le Parfait Paris he launched a catering kitchen in East County where he teaches baking classes and supplies pastries wholesale to clients like Hotel del Coronado and the Westgate Hotel. With help from friend Romain Bonnet (a former pastry chef and star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset), the cafe focuses on petit gateaux—small layered desserts of mousse, jelly, and biscuit—as well as large-scale cakes, macarons, and viennoiseries, highlighted by bestselling rolled croissants filled with flavored cream. Le Déoré plans to ramp up production to serve warm, out-of-the-oven croissants throughout the day, and the all-day menu already includes savory croissant sandwiches and quiches with crepes and an afternoon tea service coming soon; he also intends to extend hours later this summer to introduce new dinner options and hopes to open additional Desserts by Clément locations annually and possibly a French restaurant in the future." - Candice Woo